The Charge

Deep their love! Great the risk!

Opening Statement

"There's nothing like a love song to give you a big laugh."

Facts of the Case

Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman, Casablanca) is going through a rather
difficult period in her life. Not long ago, her father was convicted of being a
Nazi spy, and his nasty secret has significantly tainted her reputation. She
just wants to drown her sorrows in parties and alcohol; attempting to numb the
pain inspired by these events. One night, one of her parties is crashed by the
handsome, elegant Devlin (Cary Grant, Charade), who demonstrates considerable
interest in Alicia. She's flattered and charmed by Devlin until he reveals his
intentions: he's a government agent who wants to recruit Alicia for a top-secret
spy mission. In fact, it's so secret that even Devlin doesn't know the details;
he was handed the assignment of recruiting Alicia by his superiors.

Alicia resists at first, but eventually agrees to help out for the sake of
bringing some dignity back to her family name. During the weeks of planning and
preparation, she and Devlin start to fall for each other and begin conducting a
passionate affair. Then they both receive a rather nasty piece of news: Alicia's
assignment is to reconnect with an old flame named Alexander Sebastian (Claude
Rains, Casablanca), who is suspected of being a Nazi spy. Both Devlin and
Alicia loathe the idea on a personal level, but recognize the importance of the
mission on a professional level. Alicia proceeds with her unpleasant task,
untangling a web of deceit while creating uncomfortable romantic
entanglements.

The Evidence

I'm certainly not a proponent of cinematic censorship, but one can't help but
have some small measure of admiration for the Hays code when examining the
manner in which it inspired the creative mind of Alfred Hitchcock. Few
filmmakers were as skilled at finding clever ways to work around the
conservative rules and regulations of Hollywood's golden age. While some
directors seemed stifled by the impositions and delivered films that felt
fundamentally dishonest or compromised, Hitchcock made such stiff restrictions
seem like inspired artistic choices. There are famous examples of this
throughout his filmography, from the subtle homosexual subtext of Rope to the "train
enters tunnel" innuendo of North by Northwest to the infamous shower
scene in Psycho (which seemed so much more violent than it really was
precisely because it obscured the truly graphic stuff). However,
Notorious stands out as Hitchcock's most thorough trampling of the Hays
Code.

The most prominent instance of this, of course, is the infamous three-minute
kissing scene featuring Grant and Bergman. At the time the film was made, the
rule was that an onscreen kiss couldn't last longer than three seconds, so
Hitchcock improvised by requiring his actors to pause briefly for loving looks,
nuzzling and other sweet nothings (remaining locked in each other's arms all the
while). The result is a scene of passion that feels far more lusty than a
three-minute sequence of uninterrupted face-sucking would have, and is commonly
hailed as a triumph over the era's restrictions. Even so, it's hardly the only
instance the film has to offer.

The relationship between Devlin, Alicia and Sebastian is one that offers a
great deal of complexity. Devlin's instinct is to ask Alicia not to go on the
"seduction of Sebastian" mission, but his allegiance is to his country
prevails (a wise plotting choice by Ben Hecht, who must have recognized that
almost any action can be excused if you're attempting to take down Nazi spys).
So he bites his tongue, swallows his protests and sends her off. Likewise, she
would like nothing better than to decline the mission, but carries forward with
it due to the belief that it's what the man she loves actually wants her to do.
Things get even stickier when Sebastian enters the picture, as he's not your
ordinary mustache-twirling villain. A Nazi spy with uranium in his wine cellar,
yes, but also a man who seems to genuinely love Alicia. He dismisses the
clucking of his overbearing mother (a very good Leopoldine Konstantin, an
Austrian actress making her first film appearance in nearly a decade) and
proceeds to woo his old flame in earnest. We never doubt for a moment that
Alicia is sleeping with Sebastian, as Hitchcock constantly finds ways to imply
that fact without ever actually saying it. As Alicia tells Devlin, "You
knew very well what I was doing!"

Though the three characters can certainly be labeled as heroes or villains,
Hitchcock and Hecht were smart enough to realize that that doesn't mean they
have to act heroic or villainous on a consistent basis (as so many cinematic
characters did in those days). Devlin comes across as needlessly caustic at
times, allowing his own heartache to translate into surprisingly hurtful barbs
from time to time. It's an atypical performance from Grant, who offers flashes
of his usual charm but seems vastly more jaded and vulnerable than the majority
of his characters. Meanwhile, Rains brings a wounded soulfulness to the slimy
Sebastian, whose actions are immensely wicked but whose emotions are often
relatable. The film's final act offer revelations for both characters which
inspire some of the film's best scenes, and the movie ends in appealingly abrupt
fashion (don't worry, it's more akin to the revealing final scene of Stanley
Kubrick's The Killing than the startling
cinema interruptus of, say, Meek's
Cutoff). The best performance comes from Bergman, who turns in one of her
definitive performances as a character not too dissimilar to the Casablanca's Ilsa: a good-hearted
woman torn between passion and duty, albeit in a much different way this
time.

Notorious (Blu-ray) might be getting an unceremonious, menu-free
release from MGM rather than the Criterion treatment it deserves (it was
released on DVD by Criterion years ago), but it certainly doesn't look bad.
There are occasional flecks, scratches and other bits of damage, but overall
this 1.37:1/1080p print looks impressively detailed and vibrant. There are quite
a few moments of softness, but these are built into the film itself (oh, those
angelic soft-focus actress shots of yesteryear). There's also a moderate amount
of grain present, but it never becomes distracting. The DTS HD 2.0 Master Audio
track gets the job done well enough, presenting clean dialogue which is mostly
free of hissing and crackling. The solid score courtesy of Roy Webb sounds a bit
wobbly at times, but I'd say it sounds decent for its age. Supplements are
ported over from the most recent DVD release: commentary tracks with Professors
Rick Jewell and Drew Casper, a couple of high-quality featurettes ("The
Ultimate Romance: The Making of Notorious" and "Alfred
Hitchcock: The Ultimate Spymaster"), an archival clip of Bergman presenting
a famous prop from the film to Hitchcock at an AFI ceremony, a 1948 radio
version of Notorious starring Bergman and Joseph Cotton, audio interviews
with Hitchcock conducted by Peter Bogdonovich and Francois Truffaut, a
restoration comparison and a theatrical trailer. If only MGM could have thrown
together a disc menu (seriously, it's a little thing which just makes their
releases seem so lazy).

Closing Statement

Notorious is arguably Hitchcock's finest film of the 1940s, an
appealingly complex spy thriller filled with stylish visual flourishes and
emotionally bruised performances. Despite MGM's lack of effort, Notorious
still manages to provide a satisfactory transfer and a generous portion of
supplements.